Croatian police uncover missing wartime files

After Operation Storm, which killed around 350 civilians, more than 200,000 Serbs fled Croatia.

Police in Croatia have found thousands of missing documents sought by a UN tribunal in the trial of three former generals for war crimes, the Croatian interior ministry said on Thursday.

Some 20 raids, carried out Wednesday and Thursday, uncovered more than 10,000 pages of documents, many of which were classified as state or military secrets, the ministry said.

Their contents were not revealed, but the documents had been requested by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the court set up to try those accused of committing war crimes during the Balkan conflict.

The ministry also said officers seized a dozen maps, computers, and audio and video equipment.

The ICTY asked Zagreb in 2008 to deliver all documents containing details on a military offensive, code-named Operation Storm, that ended its four-year independence war in 1995.

After Operation Storm, which killed around 350 civilians, more than 200,000 Serbs fled Croatia.

The documents were requested for the trial of three former generals -- Ivan Cermak, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac -- charged for war crimes against ethnic Serbs.

Croatia had previously denied having any such papers in its possession.

Cooperation with the ICTY is a key criteria for Croatia's bid to join the European Union.

Zagreb hopes to become the bloc's 28th member by January 2012.